Looking back on The Avalanches album now, it’s hard not to be staggered by its impact. No Australian electronic act has gone as big on the world stage and no artist, Australian or not, has ever sampled quite like them: band member Robbie Chater famously estimates they employed over 3,500 vinyl samples across the record. Just imagine trying to clear all those today.But the thing that really that made The Avalanches so genius – and there are a lot of things – was how widespread their appeal is. To this day, they’re one of the rare bands that unite music fans of all shades in appreciation, regardless of generation or genre allegiance (just look at Rainbow Chan and Jonti’s live recreation of the album for proof of its ongoing legacy). Frontier Psychiatrist is the standalone masterpiece on Since I Left You and 14 years later, it still has us all slavishly devoted. And when the debut’s this perfect, who really cares if we never get a second album? [Katie Cunningham]

#44 The Avalanches – Since I Left You [Modular, 2000]

15 years. 15 goddamn years. That’s how long it’s been for Avalanches fans, withering in hope of a sophomore LP, trying to quell any pangs of excitement with every sporadic morsel of rumour, every unsatisfying remix released under the Avalanches' banner. Truth is, the landmark brilliance of Since I Left You came from a different era. A maelstrom of artisanal, unhinged samples, an erratic energy that could only come from a youthful lack of inhibition, the fertile grounds of sharehouse living. The title track, lifting its gleeful, repetitive hook from The Main Attraction’s Everyday, marks a triumphant highlight on a faultless album. It’s dance, carving a wormhole through to ‘50s doo-wop, coming up with something truly beautiful in the process. 15 years on, nothing has come close. [Lachlan Kanoniuk]